Nicola Sturgeon says she could leave Scotland ‘for a wee while’

Nicola Sturgeon has said she could leave Scotland “for a wee while”, but insisted that the country will always be home to her.

The former Scottish first minister said a focus on her political career meant she had had to “forego” living elsewhere.

Speaking as her memoir is published, she suggested she could have a “perspective shift” by living elsewhere.

Her comments come as she prepares to step down as an MSP at next May’s Holyrood elections – by which point she will have served 27 years in the Scottish Parliament, including more than eight years as first minister.

She was arrested and questioned by police as part of the investigation into SNP finances, but has now been formally cleared.

However, her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, who she announced her separation from in January this year, has appeared in court charged with alleged embezzlement.

Sturgeon said she was now at a point in her life where she is “happy, contented, looking forward to the future”.

But she told BBC Breakfast that while she might live elsewhere for a period, she said she would “never leave Scotland for very long”.

She stated: “Scotland is my home, it is where I belong, it is where my family is.”

She added: “One of the things about being so focused on a political career is that you forego certain things.

“I didn’t live outside of Scotland or the UK for any period when I was younger, I think it is healthy to shift your perspective, to see life from a different angle.

“So, maybe for a wee while I will take myself outside of Scotland, give myself that perspective shift, but I am never going to be away for very long.”

Speaking about her memoir, titled Frankly, she said it had been “important to me to tell my story in my words”.

The former SNP leader said: “I hope lots of people read it, I hope they enjoy it, but it is out there now and people can make up their own minds, and that is actually a nice feeling and I am enjoying that.”

She added: “What I have done in this book is put my story in my words.

“There will be people who enjoy reading it, there will be people who don’t. There will be people who slag it off who never read it at all.

“But I am really comfortable I have put my story in my words.”

She insisted she is “really proud of what I achieved as first minister”, but added that there was “lots I wish I had done different and done better” during her time in power.

But she stressed that after going through “difficult” times, she has now found “a real sense of happiness and joy in life”.

Asked about her arrest by police in June 2023, she said the period had been “difficult” and “horrific”, adding that in the police station she “felt probably at the lowest ebb in my life”.

Sturgeon said: “What the book also recounts is a process of going through that really difficult time and coming out the other end of it, so it is also a story of resilience and strength.

“I hope people can take something from that as well, that you can face these really tough times in your life – and I know people have faced much, much tougher things in life than I have – but you find within yourself a strength.”

She also made clear she has “no doubt at all” that Scotland will become independent – vowing to campaign in any future referendum on the issue.

Sturgeon had been a key figure in the campaign leading up to the 2014 vote, which saw Scots vote by 55% to 45% to stay part of the UK.

The former SNP leader accepted that her goal of independence “wasn’t delivered in my time in office”, but she said: “It will happen, I am absolutely in no doubt at all.”

She stated: “I write in the book about what I predict, in not that long a timespan, will be a kind of rewired UK, a sort of federation of the nations, and an independent Scotland will be part of that.”

While she said she may not lead an independent Scotland, she said she would “at some point in the next few years” be involved in campaigning for independence in another referendum.

Speaking about a future vote, she added: “If there is – when there is – another decision on Scottish independence, it will be a case of hold me back. I’ll be there.”